The subject matter described herein relates generally to systems and methods for monitoring a condition of a wind turbine, and more particularly, to a wind turbine that includes a rotor blade condition monitoring system configured to monitor a condition of a rotor blade.
Because many known wind turbines provide electrical power to utility grids, at least some wind turbines have larger components (e.g., rotors in excess of thirty-meters in diameter) that facilitate supplying greater quantities of electrical power. However, the larger components are often subjected to increased loads (e.g., asymmetric loads) that result from wind shears, yaw misalignment, and/or turbulence, and the increased loads have been known to contribute to significant fatigue cycles on the rotor blades and/or other components of the wind turbine.
At least some known wind turbines include a nacelle fixed atop a tower. The nacelle includes a rotor assembly coupled to a generator through a shaft. In known rotor assemblies, a plurality of rotor blades extend from a rotor. The rotor blades are oriented such that wind passing over the rotor blades turns the rotor and rotates the shaft, thereby driving the generator to generate electricity. Known rotor blades are generally subjected to operational detriments from environmental elements, such as wind shear, extreme temperatures, icing, and general mechanical wear. Moreover, known rotor blades may be subjected to stresses that cause fatigue cracking and/or failure, which may eventually cause suboptimal performance of the wind turbine. Conventional methods for monitoring some known rotor blades include manual inspection, which may be infrequent, expensive, and/or time consuming and introduce undesirable delay and expense before the suboptimal performance can be addressed.